Posted
by
Soulskillon Thursday January 14, 2010 @03:01AM
from the running-on-fumes dept.

RogueyWon writes "The Times is reporting that Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5, likely to prove a key title for the PlayStation 3, has been delayed indefinitely, despite an expectation that it would be released relatively early in 2010. The delay seems likely to impact Sony's plans to bundle the game with the PlayStation 3 console in time for the important spring sales period in Japan."

It may look amazing, but GT5 remains in the garageGran Turismo on the PSP

Sony has delayed indefinitely the Japanese launch of Gran Turismo 5, the latest instalment of a hugely complex driving simulation game that cost more than $60 million (£37 million) to develop and for which fans have been waiting for five years.

The game was due to arrive in Japanese stores in March and the delay is likely to derail Sony’s plans to bundle the PlayStation3 console with it, boosting sales during the critical spring period in Japan.

The new timetable may involve a launch of the game in Japan this summer, at the same time that it is due to be released in Europe and the United States.

Ominously, however, Sony did not include a revised launch date along with the announcement, suggesting that there could be further delays to a title that is already nearly three years overdue and reportedly suffering from development issues.

From the moment that the PlayStation3 was launched in Japan in late 2006, demonstrations of Gran Turismo 5 have left hardcore gamers around the world drooling with anticipation. Previous incarnations of Gran Turismo created especially strong fan bases in Japan and Europe, where the details-obsessed simulator overlapped with the widespread interest in mainstream, and decidedly real rather than virtual, motor sport.

The series has sold 53 million copies since it began in 1997, but it is five years since GT4 hit screens via the old PlayStation2. The new game will include Nascar racing cars in an attempt to draw more American gamers to the title.

Successive video-game trade shows and internet trailers have whetted already ravenous appetites with promises of 1,000 cars and 20 tracks, all rendered in glorious definition and with unprecedented realism. The recent online release of one of the GT5 tracks taken from the new game, and a worldwide online racing tournament on it, drew more than a million downloads in less than a week — further evidence of pent-up demand.

Speculation now centres on the reasons for the game’s delays. Many believe that its sheer complexity may be its downfall: the process of eradicating thousands of bugs may be taking longer than expected. Others believe that the developers’ decision to include a realistic car damage simulator may have created months of further work.

Analysts suspect that there may be a strategy behind the delay and that Sony is working to spread the effect of a strong games pipeline over a longer period. The recent Japanese launch of Final Fantasy XIII shifted many more PS3 consoles than expected and performed beyond expectations outside Japan.

If Sony felt that it had already met its console sales targets for its 2009 financial year, analysts said, it might want to push the GT5 launch back a little so that the frenzy surrounding its eventual launch would boost sales in the 2010 financial year. The company may be confident that titles such as God of War 3, Heavy Rain and Bayonetta will keep console sales relatively buoyant through the spring period.

The Japanese games market shrank in 2009 for the second year in succession, according to data gathered by Enterbrain. Hardware sales fell by 13.6 per cent, despite price cuts to the PS3 and Nintendo’s Wii.

Against that, global PS3 sales were strong before Christmas, soaring 76 per cent compared with the November to December period in the previous year. Total PS3 unit sales since launch are thought to have passed the 30 million mark.

Yes, I agree that iRacing is a more realistic simulation. Unfortunately, I'm primarily a gamer rather than a racer (I've thrown a car around a track on track days a few times, but that's about it), and this is where iRacing falls down badly compared to Forza 3 and Gran Turismo. Those series have historically struck a pretty fine balance between realism and fun. The entry curve on iRacing is pitched just a bit too high for me.

But GT5:Prologue gave absolutely no indication that PD have any intention to replicate this. The AI was just the same old rubberband.

I'm not so sure that the AI in GT3/4 was a rubberband model. If you had a really good car for the race, you could win by laps, or large amounts of time quite easily. A car that was too slow, and, well, you were bringing up the rear. It seemed like each car in the race was destined to finish in a certain spot, and you have to beat the fastest car to win. They drove a perfect race at the pace the car would allow, and you just had to do better, or have a faster car.